The long decline of B.C.’s unions ... and how they could rediscover their strength

A rally in support of striking teachers last September, which was organized by the B.C. Federation of Labour, saw a large turnout. B.C.’s labour movement must rediscover some of its ‘rebel energy’ if it’s to reverse declining unionization rates, says labour historian Mark Leier.RICHARD LAM file photo
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Caitlin Davidson-King is fighting to bring a new dawn to a provincial labour movement that could use a few rays of sunshine.

Davidson-King, 27, works for unionists by serving as an executive council member of Unifor Local 3000 and chairing the young workers’ committee of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Davidson-King, who earns a living working for the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C., believes labour must get behind non-unionized workers.

“What I really like about unions is the way they support people who don’t hold a union card,” she says. “We care about health care and worker safety and these things affect all of Canada’s population.”

As Labour Day arrives this year, B.C.’s unions have by one key measure been trapped in a long, fading afternoon.

The unionization rate in B.C.’s labour force shrank to 30 per cent in 2014 — below the national average — from 36.5 per cent in 1997, according to Statistics Canada.

In 1958, more than 50 per cent of B.C. workers were unionized, according to the Encyclopedia of B.C.

At their peak, B.C.’s labour unions wielded enormous clout. One of those muscle-flexing moments came in 1986, when International Woodworkers of America president Jack ­Munro led his members through an 18-week walkout over contracting out union jobs.

“From 1981 to 2012 unionization declined in all provinces but the largest declines took place in British Columbia — 13 percentage points,” Statistics Canada says.

“While most provincial declines took place in the 1980s and 1990s, the decline in British Columbia continued into the 2000s.”

Mark Thompson, a retired University of B.C. professor of industrial relations, says B.C. labour has suffered substantial membership losses as the forestry and fishing sectors downsized. Many new jobs are being created in hi-tech startups and smaller, service-sector firms that labour has found difficult to organize, Thompson says.

As B.C. becomes less reliant on the resource sector, its unionization rate will likely continue to decline, he says.

“They’ve been unable to offset those losses with victories in new sectors,” he says. “That’s not due to a failure of the labour movement. It’s just the way the economy is changing.”

Employers are resisting unionization more vigorously, Thompson says, aided by a federal government hostile to organized labour.

Organized labour remains strong enough in B.C. that a string of right-of-centre provincial governments have avoided attacking it ­directly, he says. “The (Gordon) Campbell government took a few swipes at labour in its first term but, frankly, it’s not as if the provincial government has a war on labour,” Thompson says. “It’s a different story in Ottawa.”

The bill offers employers a strategic advantage by revealing the state of union finances, and would not have passed without Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s support, Thompson says.

“It was intended to be a blow,” Thompson says. “It may not withstand scrutiny from the courts.”

Canadian unions have so far been spared the assault on labour with so-called right-to-work bills launched by Republicans in about two dozen U.S. state legislatures, Thompson says.

“But there are people that would like to do it — make no mistake,” he adds.

Mark Leier, a Simon Fraser University professor and labour historian, says governments are quick to pit unions against each other if they have competing interests.

Some people in labour oppose pipelines because of a perceived risk to the environment, whereas other unions support building them because it creates jobs, he says.

“This makes it difficult for unions to present a unified face in dealing with employers, be it the private sector or government,” Leier says.

B.C.’s labour movement is healthy, Leier says, but labour in general has been slow to recognize that the rules of the game have changed.

Labour has been able to hold the line against demands for concessions with traditional collective bargaining, “but the lines get pushed back a little bit all the time,” he says.

The movement needs to recover some of the militancy and the “rebel energy” that animated it from the 1930s through the 1960s, he says. Tactics labour invented to advance its cause — sit-ins, rallies, factory occupations — have been adapted by young people and social justice groups outside the labour movement, he adds.

“The model of unionization we have by large — with some exceptions — seen for the last 40 years is very careful and cautious,” he says. “The business-as-usual model has not attracted people and hasn’t been able to deliver much for labour’s membership.”

B.C. Federation of Labour president Irene Lanzinger says that she and her predecessor Jim Sinclair have acted on the need to support workers and other groups outside the labour movement. The federation’s efforts on behalf of farm workers and its campaign for a $15-an-hour minimum wage may have more impact on non-unionized workers, she says.

Labour’s success in B.C. should not be judged only by the province’s unionization rate, she says.

“We are determined to keep our union density and to increase it,” Lanzinger says. “A key to having more equality in our society is to have more people in unions and organizing is the first thing we should do.“

But she adds: “We try to ensure we work to represent every worker because non-union workers don’t have anybody else to represent them. It’s not entirely without self-interest but I would argue that unions are largely organizations that fight for social justice.”

One way the Fed carries out this struggle is to campaign for the NDP, with whom it’s affiliated, in the current federal election.

While some of the Fed’s affiliates are non-partisan, the organization as a whole believes the NDP is the best party to represent working people, Lanzinger says.

But Leier cautions against over-relying on a defensive strategy of hoping a more labour-friendly party will change employment law in unions’ favour. While the NDP will listen to labour’s concerns more than the Liberals or Conservatives will, it’s by no means a workers’ party, he says.

“An NDP victory federally would look like it does provincially,” Leier says. “It would make some cautious moves and give labour some small changes and reforms. It would be naive to think the NDP would say, ‘Give us your wish list. Let’s make it happen.’”

Labour’s future in B.C. will depend more on its willingness to prod government than on the stripe of the party that takes office, he says.

“Politicians do not do things because it is the right thing to do,” Leier says. “They do the right thing when they are pushed and pressured to do them.”

Leier is optimistic about the future of unions in B.C. partly because they channel the human drive to resist what is wrong.

“If you look at the most oppressive regimes in the world there is always resistance and people always fight back,” he says. “That is one of the things I like about human beings.”

The annual 10-day event attracts thousands of people — riders and fans — to the mountain resort

Vancouver Flyers

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